Das Kasperlspiel, and walked around like a puppet for the rest of the day.

The Rules:

This game is pretty straightforward; to play you just claim one Harlequin movable card and arrange its arms and legs into a starting position. Then shuffle the Harlequin cards and deal them out into three piles, which should then be turned face up. The youngest player begins and tries to make their Harlequin match one of the cards they can see by moving only one arm or leg one position. If you succeed in matching one of the images on your turn you get to claim that card from the top of the pile. If you don’t manage to match one of the cards it is the next players turn. The highest number of cards that any player can in one turn is two, and this is only possible if a players Harlequin matches a card that’s already face-up when their turn begins. They are then allowed to claim that card before moving their Harlequin to try and claim another. The game ends when all the cards have been claimed and the player with the most cards wins. If two players are tied for the most cards then the points (shown in a small coloured circle on each card) are added up and the player with the highest number of points wins.

For Christmas?

Maybe… To be honest, although I like this game, I also struggle with it a bit. It requires quite a lot more concentration than games from our previous posts of this years Twelve Games series to consider the most logical/efficient way of moving your Harlequin. On top of that, Aunt Jean definitely wouldn’t be able to cope with it, it’s likely she’d find it boring and too fiddly. I would recommend it to families who like serious, logical games. Not because it’s difficult, but simply because you have to concentrate that little bit harder on it.

Happy Sixth Day of Christmas! It’s around this time that people are starting to have to go back to work and there’s less time for games, but if you’ve got kids, or lots of holiday days, keep the games flowing!